Anything but Ordinary

Ember-Rose took a deep breath as she focused on the blue mat ahead of her, licking her lips in anticipation she took the first step before lightly sprinting feeling the soft blue mat underneath her feet. Throwing her arms up in the air she tossed her body over making a full cartwheel before doing a front flip once again landing on her two feet sticking the landing throwing her arms up in a fancy finale.

“Woooooo! Go Emmy!” her face flushed hearing her baby sister clap her hands loudly shouting that her sister was the best in the bunch.

Walking towards the little four year, “Kyree please don’t shout. I’m not the best” feeling the eyes of almost all the gymnast on them. She hated the attention she was given and as much as she wanted to get rid of it she knew it was too late now.

“Sorry” she sheepishly said “But you are good, you fantablous!” getting praise from her younger sister still flattered her but seeing the other girls in the gym made her be filled with worry and doubt. It was clear in her eyes that she wasn’t that gifted.

Ember-Rose had been into gymnastics since she was a child but it didn’t mean that she was any good. The outfits alone made herself conscious about her body, being so sickly pale from head to toe didn’t help since her outfits were so bright that stuck her out like a sore thumb.

Ruffling Kyree’s hair she smiled softly, “Do you want to learn how to do that somersault?”

“Hell yeah!” Kyree replied with a toothy grin.

Jumping from her seat she followed her big sister to the mat that was only reserved for Ember alone, it was a pretty good size space for one person. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t in a team but the coach was nice enough to have her practice as much as she wanted when she came. Even though the coach asked Ember dozens of times to become part of the team she declined.

She even gotten more scared when she shared that she had potential even to audition for the Olympics if she ever wanted to. That was too much for her to handle so she lied telling her that she would think about it since she was too nice to say no.

“Okay now bend down like this” showing Kyree what to do “Put your hands in front of you that helps you push yourself into circular motion. Then you push” letting her body tumble in a full circle throwing her hands in the air “Ta da!”

The little one giggled seeing that Ember was becoming her usual self when they were alone; technically they weren’t but having the white haired girl focus only on Kyree made her feel comfortable enough to ignore her surroundings and be her usual playful self. Ember was only like this around Kyree since it would be pretty boring for the four year old to have a non-active bigger sister.

“Now you try” patting the mat when her little sister tried it herself she fixed her form as much as possible when she was doing it incorrectly. The first time Kyree flopped to her side laughing at her failed attempt before she pushed herself back up and tried again.

It took a little while for Kyree to get it and now Ember was watching her baby sister roll from one end of the mat and back. In the middle of her somersault frenzy, “Woo! I’m getting dizzy”

“That’s what happens when you do it too much” helping her sister stand before asking if she wanted to learn how to do cartwheels next. Kyree seem a bit more nervous attempting the next move since it was a lot more complicated but she put a front.

“Yes I am” puffing out her chest making the older woman chuckle at her sister’s courage.

When Ember-Rose demonstrated the cartwheel for Kyree going slow and explaining each step, then she thought about it, “You know what, if you can do a hand stand then you can do a cart wheel. So why not practice that instead?”

“Okay!” Kyree jumped to that agreement a bit too quickly before trying to do a handstand by herself making her legs clatter together and tumbled down at her fail attempt.

“I’m doing it!” she smile d in victory as she started to walk on her hands, Ember wanted to laugh since she was holding onto her sister’s tiny legs as she was walking. Ember thought it would be best if she had some support before she can do it herself, she guessed that Kyree would take any victory.

After a while Ember applied another layer of sun tan lotion before she put on her sweat pants and sweater before walking alongside Kyree back to their home. It was quite a distance but she doesn’t have a car she had to walk with Kyree everywhere. Her mother is too worried about her driving on her own since her vision isn’t that stable at times.

Even with the surgery that made her eyes less jumpy her sight was still a bit blurry and weak. Looking around in her thick glasses she held Kyree’s hand as she held onto her duffel bag with the other. The little girl started to skip along the sidewalk singing random songs once again as they crossed the street and was merely a block away from their house.

“Hey Emmy”

“Yes Ky”

“Can you see without your glasses?”

Ember paused glancing down at her sister, “Not really, why?”

Kyree halted before looking up at her sister, “Can I see?” holding out her hand for the glasses that were perched on the older woman’s face. Blinking she wondered why she would ever ask something like that but took off her glasses nonetheless and handed them to her sister who put them on.

“Wow you really are blind!” taking off the glasses almost immediately “You can have them back”

Ember laughed seeing that Kyree just wanted to see if what she said was true; her vision was a bit blurry without her glasses and now having them on again she could see a bit more clearly. Walking through the park to get to their house Kyree jumped excitedly pointing, “Pinkly!”

The little white dog’s ear perked up as she bounded over to the little girl in excitement, Ember made a face wondering what kind of dog owner Brian was since this will be the second time Pinkly has run off on her own. Kyree ruffled the little dog’s hair as she whimpered in excitement.

“Lookie Emmy! Pinkly has little bows in her hair” lightly tugging at the little bows on her hair.

“Poor dog” she mumbled watching her little sister play with the Maltese. “Come on; let’s go find Brian to give back Pinkly”

Kyree pouted before scooping up Pinkly in her arms mumbling if she could she would take her home, shaking her head Ember saw a woman walking up to them with a relief look on her face. “Pinkly! There you are!”

Walking up to the two girls she paused seeing that the youngest one has her dog in her arms, bending down she smiled softly “Hey there, can I have my dog back? I have been looking all over for her”

Kyree looked at Ember before stubbornly protecting the Maltese with her body “It’s not your doggie, she belongs to Brian”

The mystery woman looked confused, “You know Brian?” looking at the two girls “I never seen you before”

“Don’t lie lady just because this is Brian’s doggie doesn’t mean that you can steal her” Ember saw that this woman was getting irritated how stubborn Kyree was getting. No matter what this woman said to Kyree she wouldn’t budge on giving her Pinkly.

For some reason the little girl didn’t trust her when she said that it was her dog and when she said that Brian was her boyfriend she didn’t understand quite that well. “Ky” Ember interjected putting a hand on her tiny back “Give Pinkly back to the nice lady”

“But it’s not hers! What if Brian comes by and gets all sad when I tell him that I gave it to some woman”

“Trust me, it’s hers. Okay?” Kyree bit her lip looking at the small white dog that was in her arms that licked her face feeling the emotions that were swirling around the little girl. Handing the dog over to the woman her lips trembled hearing Pinkly whine trying to get back into Kyree’s arms.

“It’s alright Pinks I’m here” the woman said soothingly before she focused her attention on the two girls in front of her.

“Thank you and I’m Michelle” throwing her hand out for the oldest one to take.

“Ember-Rose” taking the shorter woman’s hand “And this is my baby sister Kyree. Sorry for the trouble we caused you, she just wanted to make sure that it went back to the right owner.”

Michelle smiled “Oh it’s understandable and thank you once again” she turned around walking around as both girls heard the whimpers of the dog.

“She wanted to play some more though” Kyree mumbled under her breath seeing the Maltese wanted to be in her arms. It broke the little girl’s heart that she couldn’t play with her. As much as she wanted to ask if she could play with Pinkly something told her that it wouldn’t be the best idea to do so.

Michelle looked like she was rushing so she kept her thoughts to herself, feeling Ember take her hand as they continued to walk home. “Emmy?” she called out softly. When her sister replied she asked, “Do you think Pinkly will be okay?”

She heard Ember take a deep breath before answering her “Why wouldn’t she? Michelle is her owner”

“Then why was she sad?”

“Because she wanted to play that’s all” Kyree didn’t want to believe that notion whatsoever and for some reason she just felt uneasy being around this Michelle woman; which was a first for her since she loved being around people. No matter how badly someone would treat her she would still smile and be her loud silly self but with Michelle she couldn’t do that.

Kyree didn’t like Michelle, not one bit